Cultural capital as whiteness? Examining logics of ethno-racial representation and resistance

There is a significant, longstanding tradition in British sociological research that renders cultural capital synonymous with whiteness. This article suggests that one substantive factor that contributes to the enduring relationship between whiteness and cultural capital is the paucity of research o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of sociology of education 2018-06, Vol.39 (4), p.466-482
Main Author: Wallace, Derron
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Black people
Blacks
Bourdieu, Pierre (1930-2002)
Case Studies
Comparative Analysis
Correlation
Cultural Capital
Educational Research
Ethnicity
Ethnography
Focus Groups
Foreign Countries
Immigrants
Interviews
Middle Class
Minority Groups
Qualitative Research
Racial Attitudes
Racial Bias
Racial identity
Resistance
Secondary School Students
Social classes
Social Science Research
Sociological research
Sociology
Sociology of culture
Whites
Working Class
Youth
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Summary:There is a significant, longstanding tradition in British sociological research that renders cultural capital synonymous with whiteness. This article suggests that one substantive factor that contributes to the enduring relationship between whiteness and cultural capital is the paucity of research on the Black and ethnic minority middle classes. Studies of social class in the United Kingdom frequently render middle-class life synonymous with whiteness and all too often fix ethno-racial identities to the working classes. The article draws on a 14-month comparative ethnography as a case study to provide an asset-based reading of cultural capital among the Black Caribbean middle classes in Britain. The findings suggest that the seemingly exclusive link between whiteness and cultural capital is problematised by Black Caribbean young people, and therefore should be further critiqued in sociological and educational research, especially when developing cultural capital analyses.
ISSN:0142-5692
1465-3346
DOI:10.1080/01425692.2017.1355228